The Dark Creatures
by reminiscent-afterthought
Summary: A collection of poems on the darker beasts of Harry Potter: Dementors, Werewolves etc.
1. Dementors I

**A/N:** Written for the Non-human characters boot camp, #004 – job, The If You Dare Challenge #502 – death, and for the Simply Supernatural Boot Camp, #045 – free space (Dementor)

* * *

**The Dark Creatures  
1\. Dementors I**

They are the echoes of despair,  
the approaching death with their flapping black cloaks  
that die in the cold-crusted breeze –

They are so fragile, so fair  
but black, blacker than the night without its moon  
and no wind can push them down: they become the wind  
wailing all the despair that leaks from them  
as they search for their feed, that package  
they have to take, but becomes a drug  
to them.


	2. Werewolves I

**A/N:** Written for the Non-human characters boot camp, #005 – pacify, and for the If You Dare Challenge, #843 – wild gestures.

* * *

**The Dark Creatures  
2\. Werewolves I**

A werewolf is a wild soul  
without restraint; a beast that starves  
for blood, for the howl of living bodies  
without pause, without satiety,  
crunching between huge fangs,  
being crushed by strong claws

And few are human, afterwards, to weep  
for the mindless destruction they cause;  
most have already given up,  
given in  
to the beast.


	3. Vampires I

**A/N:** Written for the Non-human characters boot camp, #049 – outrageous, and for the If You Dare Challenge, #037 – rednecks.

* * *

**The Dark Creatures  
3\. Vampires I**

They have very little bone  
and skin enough to cloth them  
like a tattered veil

And yet,  
who can accuse them of indecency?  
The arguers become their prey,  
drained until they themselves are an empty sack  
with flesh and bone,  
leaving only a little red  
to scar the neck

And that appetite for rich red blood is fuelled  
not by desperate hunger  
but anger

For the sun shunning them they can take  
but those that they could pretend to be  
were spilt in an impulsive strike.


	4. Basilisk I

**A/N:** Written for the Non-Human Character Boot Camp, #47 – glasses, and for the If You Dare Challenge, #181 – in a coma.

* * *

**The Dark Creatures  
4\. Basilisk I**

Her gaze was an enthralling one:  
captivating, holding…  
victimising…

So that even the ones who she'd been ordered  
to spare cringed back in fear from her voice  
or the sound of her many scales slithering  
across the floor  
and her victim's bones…

And it wasn't as though she could help  
her gaze: how it was a Medusa stare,  
sparing no-one  
except those who were fortunate enough to not stare  
straight into her orbs

But lens or water or ghostly shadow  
they saw her: her frightening yellow eyes  
and froze.

Their fragile fresh hearts were just lucky enough  
to escape.


	5. Grindylow I

**A/N:** Written for the Non-Human Character Boot Camp, #28 – lopsided, and the If You Dare Challenge, #508 – bones.

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**The Dark Creatures  
5\. Grindylow I**

They were little devils of the water:  
looking innocent from afar  
but once their bony little hands had caught their prey,  
a feast was just a little snap away.

Their grip might be brittle but it was also strong  
and the innocent veil the water gave  
was long gone, up so close.  
Sickening green that might have, further away, melted  
with the blue.

It was a task to escape from them  
but it could be done,

Elsewise the algae and small-fish feeding demons  
would taste the human soul  
inside the body with broken bones.


	6. Lethifold I

**A/N:** Written for the Non-Human Character Boot Camp, #07 – chamomile tea, and the If You Dare Challenge, #893 – good taste.

* * *

**The Dark Creatures  
6\. Lethifold I**

They were cloaked like the shadow of despair  
but otherwise they were as solid as the day:  
sliding, slithering, climbing  
most adeptly through a tree-thick shroud

But often their victims are asleep and cannot tell  
the death is coming close; instead they sleep and dream  
sweet, soothing dreams  
without a chill in the world.

And they woke up the next morning,  
devoured  
like the sweet tasting tea they'd had  
the night before.


	7. Dementors II

**A/N:** **A/N:** Written for the Non-human characters boot camp, #039 – yellow brick road

* * *

**The Dark Creatures  
7\. Dementors II**

Hope: that was a beautiful thing  
untouchable to them.

It shone too bright.  
It left too light a trail  
they swayed off course,  
dizzy,  
ever dizzy  
amidst such a dazzling gleam.

Despair, that was the only thing they could eat  
and grow, and live towards; hope was too bright,  
too pure a thing  
to even brush.


	8. Werewolves II

**A/N:** Written for the Non-human characters boot camp, #050 – "Be who you want to be."

* * *

**The Dark Creatures  
8\. Werewolves II**

They were human  
except on nights of the full moon.  
They _were_

And yet it seemed no one could look at them  
as one: as a human  
who could live amongst other humans,  
not a feral beast  
who needed to be restrained by silver nooses  
and a cage.

It wasn't fair; they could only lie and hide themselves  
if they wanted to be  
like that: like other, normal, humans.

Or they could choose the road of the beast  
and forego their humanity: those other days  
where they could live a normal life  
except for whispered stares.

Few chose the road of a human: it was too hard  
to bear those stares, easier to just rage,  
just let loose, just let the heart break…

But those who truly wanted it  
would not be denied.


	9. Vampire II

**A/N:** Written for the Non-human characters boot camp, #041 – mumbo jumbo

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**The Dark Creatures  
9\. Vampire II**

Blood-sucking beasts; they needed blood  
but there were other ways to drink,  
of only people were so kind

But people were not so kind  
and so tricks and thievery it was

And the truly starved could do nothing else  
but drink without restraint when they received a rare cup.  
Who could blame  
such a desperate face?

And yet blame they did  
after being the hands that starved them from their drink.

Such a paradox they aimed to kill  
by killing them. Starving them.

They needed blood to survive.

And, like all living things,  
they _would_ survive.


	10. Basilisk II

**A/N:** Written for the Non-human characters boot camp, #013 – bloody hell

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**The Dark Creatures  
10\. Basilisk II**

There was a basilisk loose, they would said.  
They would hunt her.  
Blind her.  
Kill her.

She only lived to protect.  
Rats were her only food  
and unless she was ordered she wouldn't leave,  
wouldn't subject that Medusa stare of hers  
to the school.

It was a lonely life. A lonely meaningless life  
because nobody would thank her;  
they'd only reap her body  
for the reward.

She knew that well  
but still,  
she couldn't just starve and die  
or abandon the only purpose she knew.

It was a dark place, a dark future  
with her blood at the end of the road

But still, that was all she had  
to survive.


	11. Grindylow II

**A/N:** Written for the Non-human characters boot camp, #043 – song

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**The Dark Creatures  
11\. Grindylow II**

They were savage beasts kept in servitude  
by that song: bound to peace,  
bound to sweet coloured plants and little fish  
that would slip through their fingers…

That meat they lay in the lake was, to them,  
denied; _they_ ruled,  
the kings and queens of the lake.

They hungered, but they could not dive  
into those spears, into those songs  
to be gutted themselves, like the larger fish  
that were absent from the lake  
but they sought to catch.

_They_ were the true beasts, and yet  
their song bewitched even the ones  
who labelled the beasts.


	12. Lethifold II

**A/N:** Written for the Non-human characters boot camp, #029 – thud

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**The Dark Creatures  
12\. Lethifold II**

They sucked the bodies dry  
and they fell, with a thud  
into the earth  
to be buried.

At least it wasn't the soul,  
it wasn't despair.  
Just darkness:  
the darkness inside their jaws  
because there was nothing else in the world  
they could devour

Without human shells they would die,  
become extinct;  
if nothing else, they would dig  
up those already dead bodies  
and take was left,  
and make it enough.

If they weren't denied the dead  
there would be no need at all  
to haunt the living

But when nothing was given to them,  
they had to take

And they took from both:  
the living  
and the dead.


End file.
